Bayelsa State Governor Seriake Dickson on Monday urged a former governor and chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Timipre Sylva, to forget his ambition to return to the Government House in 2016.
Dickson described Sylva’s first term as the darkest days in the history of Bayelsa.
In a statement on Monday in Yenagoa, the state capital, by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Daniel Iworiso-Markson, the governor urged Sylva to consider his ambition to return to the Government House as an illusion, “because the people of Bayelsa now know better”.
Dickson was reacting to comments credited to Sylva, who accused him of governing Bayelsa by intimidation and fear.
He said: “Sylva’s remarks epitomised those of a man who has lost focus, and is not in touch with the realities on the ground. It is heart-warming that he (Sylva) is not accusing me of multiple crimes and criminality, secret killings, cultism, large scale corruption and brigandage, which were the hallmarks of his tenure as governor of Bayelsa State.
“Sylva’s era as governor of Bayelsa State was the darkest days in the history of the state. Bayelsans have become wiser and would not be cajoled or hoodwinked by his antics.
“If Sylva is a wise man, he would have seen the handwriting on the wall, that Bayelsans have since rejected him by voting massively for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in all the recent elections.”
‘FG Has Neglected N’Delta Pollution’
Civil society organisations in the Niger Delta have accused the Federal Government of alleged indifference to the pollution of the environment by international oil companies operating in the region.
The groups said this in Port Harcourt on Saturday at a one-day sensitisation workshop with the theme ‘Diminished Ecosystem, Diminished Production and Optimal Consumption in the Niger Delta’, organised by the National Coalition on Gas Flaring and Oil Spills in the Niger Delta to commemorate this year’s World Environment Day.
The Country Director of one of the civil society organisations, the Stakeholders Democracy Network, Mr. Inemo Samiama, faulted the Federal Government’s poor attitude towards current environmental challenges in the Niger Delta.
Samiama pointed out that while the Nigerian government remained happy to take the oil and gas and the revenues accruing from oil production and exploration, the government did not bother about the environmental challenges facing the people of the area.
He said, “The Nigerian government is quite happy to take the oil and gas, take the revenues from the oil production, but they really don’t care about the environmental challenges that come with this oil and gas activities.
“They have not done much to clean up and remediate the Niger Delta environment. For example, implement the recommendation of the UNEP Report; they have not done much to even carry out researches on the impacts of these activities on the people of the Niger Delta.
“That in itself is shocking and just shows that the Federal Government does not care as long as the oil is flowing in the Niger Delta region.”
The National Coordinator of NACGOND, Rev Fr. Edward Obi, had earlier called on the Federal Government to take the issue of environmental management seriously in order to avoid disaster in future.
“Several parts of Nigeria have the problem, but the reason why the Niger Delta stands out is because for over 50 years there has been relentless pollution of the environment on account of oil companies’ activities,” he said.
